WND EXCLUSIVE

Washington regs on ballot in 10 states

Voters considering simply telling feds their demands unwelcome

From Obamacare to marijuana regulations, 10 states are voting on whether simply to tell Washington bureaucrats to take their regulations and, well, keep them.

According to a report compiled by the Tenth Amendment Center, which works to remind Americans that the federal government is supposed to be a limited institution, several states are considering granting permission for the “business” of marijuana, from growing to selling, and others are deciding whether to exempt their citizens of Obamacare’s requirements in several ways.

According to the report from Michael Boldin, “voters will get a chance to resist DC and approve ballot initiatives which would nullify unconstitutional federal acts.”

Those are on the ballots in Colorado, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Massachusetts and Alabama.

Those tackling the Obamacare issue include voters in Montana. There the proposed LR-122 would prohibit “the state or federal government from mandating the purchase of health insurance.”

It also would prevent any consumers from being billed for “penalties for decisions related to the purchase of health care insurance.”

The same subject in Alabama is addressed by Amendment 6, which would “free Alabama citizens from any requirement to participate in Obamacare, or any other compulsory health care program,” according to the center.

The amendment would place the burden on lawmakers and the governor to block implementation of Obamacare.

And in Wyoming, Amendment A would “guarantee citizens of the state the right to make their own healthcare decisions with minimal government interference,” the center explains.

The proposal states: “Each competent adult shall have the right to make his or her own health care decisions. The parent, guardian or legal representative of any other natural person shall have the right to make health care decisions for that person.”

Florida’s Amendment 1 would allow state voters “to tell the feds to go pound the plentiful Sunshine State sand … when they consider … a health care freedom amendment,” the center’s report said.

If passed, the amendment will “prohibit laws or rules from compelling any person or employer to purchase, obtain, or otherwise provide for health care coverage.”

On the issue of marijuana are votes in several states, including Massachusetts, where Question 3 would eliminate state criminal and civil penalties related to the medical use of marijuana.

In Colorado, Amendment 64 would let people engage in the “personal use and regulation of marijuana” for adults. It addresses the legal commercial cultivation, manufacture and sale.

And in Washington State, Initiative 502 I-52 would treat pot in the same way as alcohol, allow growing, producing, selling, buying and consuming.

It’s Issue 5 in Arkansas, which would make “the medical use of marijuana legal under Arkansas state law, and establishing a system for the cultivation, acquisition and distribution of marijuana for qualifying patients through nonprofit medical marijuana dispensaries and granting those nonprofit dispensaries limited immunity.”

Arizona has a Proposition 120, which would declare state sovereignty over the state’s natural resources based on the argument of “equal footing,” according to the center’s report.

WND reported only about a year ago that several states, including Tennessee, Arizona and Montana, actively were reviewing measures to yank the reins on the federal government’s expansion of powers.

At the time, Tennessee Sen. Stacey Campfield said, “We have to smack their hand a little to get it out of the cookie jar.”

WND reported when Arizona and Montana were the first two states to introduce the proposals to set up standing state commissions to review “all existing federal statutes, mandates, and executive orders” to determine their constitutionality.

The results would have been recommendations to state lawmakers whether any particular federal plan should be “nullified” in that state.

Although the measures were not adopted on their first introduction, the idea remains influential.

The plan has been promoted by The Patriots Union, a Wyoming-based organization that is taking in hand the battle against what it considers an overreaching federal government.

Boldin, the center founder, said at the time idea that states would reject a Washington demand is not radical, it’s reasonable. He said what’s radical is “the idea that the federal government can be the final arbiter of the extent of its own powers.”